With talks of an open IPL auction next year and all the players to fall in the pool of auction, there is a stress which prevails within players as well as it would be odd if Rohit Sharma – who led Mumbai Indians to three IPL triumphs – playing for another team against Mumbai?

It will be odd if Virat Kohli – who played for 10 years for RCB- playing for another side and beating his former team.

Surely, it will be strange but players have already started expressing desire of playing for their old franchises, as Rohit Sharma has said he would like to stay with Mumbai Indians for the upcoming seasons of IPL as well along with the whole squad,

“I would love to play for my state franchise. I have played all my cricket in Mumbai and lived here all my life. We would also be happy to retain the whole squad.”

Rohit was speaking a day after leading Mumbai to their third IPL triumph, all of them coming under the leadership of him.

BCCI is yet to take a call upon the policies for the next years auction. On one side, reports suggest that there will be an open auction next time. According to it, all the players, including MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, and Rohit Sharma will go under the hammer and will be up for the take.

On the other side, there is another rumour in the air according to which IPL franchises will be given a ‘Right to Match Card’. The franchises can use that card to retain a certain number of players in the auction at their highest bid price.

For example, Virat Kohli is sold to Mumbai Indians for 10 Crores. At that point of time, RCB will have an option to retain Kohli at the same price.

But before making any assumption, it is still to be understood that BCCI is yet to come up with an official statement regarding any of the two options and the franchises will have to wait for a word from BCCI before forming their plans.